PHOENIX. [sequel to 067]

24. a revealed dead man isn't a good deadman.

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"just follow me and listen to my fair lady, she isn't in the best spirits at the moment," dottore warns you. his tone, stern yet oddly caring, caused a headache to arise in you. it's as if your body knew what such a tone meant, but your mind didn't -- and couldn't quite place what it was, what it meant or what your body was trying to warn you of. however, what you did know, is that this zandik character couldn't be trusted. the man in the closet, alongside you, had warned you of that much, at least underneath all of that babbling about how you're naieve, and a lost puppy.

it's odd, really. you've hardly heard of any other experiments -- beyond what zandik has told you in the past -- so his sudden statement of the "tests, the torture" was quite odd. a puzzle really. a cruel, sick, puzzle you're stuck putting together in your mind. after all, who could you trust? if not zandik, then who? some random man in a closet? that is what this all boils down to in the end ... where your loyalties lie. whether you wish to believe the man you love, and loves you or a man in a closet. another experiment, such as yourself as you had come to learn. while thinking about it, you couldn't help but wonder how much you'd gain from either side of the equation. while, sticking with zandik could offer you great rewards, a normal life while being with him, maybe even occasionally helping out with his experiments. or. you believe a man in a closet with ball socket joints, claiming to have been tortured by the man whose shown you kindness. but ... zandik has lied before, hasn't he?

you follow him out from the closet and into a dining area, where you're immeditately brought face to face with several odd looking people. some of which, you've seen before -- like the few harbingers in the room, that lingered around as if they didn't have a true meaning for being there but had to be. but there's a lot ... a lot of people who aren't all that familiar. two of them appear child-like in appearance, small with young child features adorning their face and youthful yet mature expressions. and then the rest, well, appeared quite a bit older, as if they've seen some things you couldn't even begin to comprehend. perhaps, they have, it's not as if you would know. you're an outsider, and it's made eerily clear with the harsh gaze of the tsaritsa cast upon you.

her glare, which had once been more gentle, is now replaced by a harsh icy one. perhaps this is the foul mood zandik had warned you about, you can't exactly press her, a goddess, on the issue anyhow. you just had to stand there and take it, just as zandik instructed you to. it's what you're going to do, something within your body, your mind, is screaming at you to listen to him. to not question his motives, or his warnings. and as you stood there, oh ever so obeidently, one of your s/t hands couldn't help but snake their way up to your neck -- feeling where the scar you had grown accustomed to laid. you could feel the incisions that were made on your skin just under your finger tips, where the stitches once were. now, you never knew the story behind such a wound, but the feeling of it under your fingers was meerly enough to cause a shudder to go past you.

"... as i said, this here, is project 067. a dead man brought back to life," the tsaritsa states while flickering her wrist over to you sloppily, as if this was the introduction you deserve. her tone holds a deeper meaning, you pick up on it quite easily. her outward expression, to all the people in the room, feigned interest as it holds a deeper meaning of indifference. her cold expression plastered on that face of hers is the exact same.

however, the mention of "...dead man.." had caught your attention quite easily. you unconsciously took a few steps away from zandik, as if pacing yourself for any moment. you don't know what could happen, perhaps the mention of this, supposed, death of yours would set off any of the powerful looking men in the room; which, would cause a large reaction and a spiral. you're not a stranger to spirals, as the memories of zander had been plaguing your mind for quite some time now, causing your own mind to spiral in a rather odd way.